- •Music in the Modern World western music of the twentieth century (general survey)
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Additional Assignments
- •Some twentieth-century composers arnold schoenberg (1874-1951)
- •The composer speaks: arnold schoenberg
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Bela bartok (1881-1945)
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Bartok
- •Discussion Points
- •Paul hindemith: his life and work (1895-1963)
- •The composer speaks: paul hindemith
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Electronic music
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Stravinsky
- •Additional Assignments
- •Britten's operas
- •The composer speaks: benjamin broten
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Britten
- •Additional Assignments
- •Menotti. The opera composer
- •The composer speaks: gian carlo menotti
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Michael tippett: a child of our time
- •30 Questions on the Text
- •Experimental (avant-garde) music
- •Olivier messiaen
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Additional Assignments
- •George ligeti (b. 1923)
- •Karlheinz stockhausen
- •35 Discussion Activities Questions on the Text about Ligeti
- •About Stockhausen and Experimental Composers
- •Questions about Western Music of the 20th Century
- •Points for Discussion and Written Compositions
- •Popular music rock
- •Points about rock
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Elvis presley - story of a superstar
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The beatles
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •English and American Musical History english music (general survey)
- •1. Opera.
- •2. Performing groups.
- •3. Festivals.
- •4. Education.
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •The golden age in england
- •The english virginal school
- •Virginal music composers. William Byrd (1542-1623)
- •Byrd in his time and ours
- •English madrigalists
- •"The british orpheus"
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •56 American music (general survey)
- •61 Charles ives, the first truly american composer (1874-1954)
- •Charles ives and american folk music
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The relation of jazz to american music
- •Louis armstrong
- •The swing era (duke ellington)
- •Spirituals
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The Art of Musical Interpretation the problem of interpretation
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Conducting
- •The art of conducting
- •Questions on the Text
- •Some musical encounters
- •Questions on the Text
- •86 Leonard bernstein
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Herbert von karajan
- •Interview with herbert von karajan
- •The art of piano playing: glenn gould
- •Interview with glenn gould
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The art of violin playing: eugene ysaye
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The world of opera handel in performance
- •Franco zeffirelli: the romantic realist
- •La divina: maria callas
- •Callas remembered
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Peter pears: ronald crichton speaks
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Notes Page 5
- •Page 21
- •Page 31
- •Page 32
- •Page 34
- •Page 35
- •Page 37
- •Page 39
- •Page 46
- •Page 47
- •Page 48
- •Page 49
- •Page 52
- •Page 53
- •Page 54
- •Page 57
- •Page 58
- •Page 59
- •Page 60
- •Page 61
- •Page 62
- •Page 63
- •Page 65
- •Page 66
- •Page 111
- •Page 112
- •Sources
- •Contents
Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
1. What does the author take to be the principal feature of modernism? Which composers opened up certain pathways to modern music?
2. Briefly outline Messiaen's career as a composer, organist, and teacher. Which composers influenced the young Messiaen?
3. Who belonged to the Young France group? What united the
musicians?
4. What are the most important elements of Messiaen's musical language? Comment on his use of ancient Greek rhythms anal scales, Hindu rhythms, and bird songs. What symbolic meaning did the use of bird song have in Messiaen's works?
5. Name Messiaen's principal works for solo piano. What are his most important orchestral works? Did he write operas?
6. What prominent composers studied under Messiaen?
Discussion Points
1. Which of Messiaen's piano compositions have you heard?
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What do you think of them? What effect did they have on you, if any?
2. What books about Messiaen have been published in the Soviet Union? Have you read any of them? What have you learnt from them?
3. What do you know about Messiaen's books on the theory of music?
4. Do you agree or disagree with the author who listed Messiaen among avant-garde composers? Give your reasons?
Additional Assignments
1. Write a composition or give a short talk characterizing Messiaen's treatment of melody and rhythm. Give examples showing his innovations in these areas.
2. Comment on the use of serial technique in Messiaen's music.
3. How do you understand the following statement in connection with Messiaen: Musical style may be a blending of many influences?
George ligeti (b. 1923)
The two areas in which Ligeti's music is especially inventive are texture and time. In some of his compositions, there are no melodies, no short-range rhythms, and no harmonic progressions in the traditional sense, only blocks of dense musical textures drawn out in slowly changing patterns. The effect on the willing listener is to produce a very different state of time-perception - one that is somehow contemporary, meditative, and primal. Perhaps it is these qualities that caused director Stanley Kubrick to use Ligeti's Atmosphères* and Lux aeterna* in the movie 2001.
Despite its very modern sound, Lux aeterna is one of Ligeti's more traditional works. At the "outer layer" of the listening experience, we hear very little melody in the traditional sense. For the most part, we respond to long, drawn-out textures that seem to be slowly changing. One of the interesting ways that the textures change is by being "thin" or "thick". The "thinnest" texture is created by the voices singing one pitch; the "thicker" textures result when they sing many pitches close to one another. Interestingly, these effects are produced by one of the oldest polyphonic techniques, which is hidden inside the dense sound: The piece is a canon.
In recent years Ligeti has considerably extended his range. From his earliest works (Atmosphères, for example) he has always created the most subtle sound-pictures of any textural composer. He has also written a series of "pianissimo-pieces": Etude No. 1 - Harmonies for organ (1967), Lux aeterna (1966) for 16-part choir and Lontano* for
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orchestra, in which shifts of pitch and colour occur almost imperceptibly.
From: Music A Living Language by T. Manoff; The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music